Safer by
Design
According to a YouGov poll earlier this year, two thirds of women still don’t feel safe in the built environment. Sophie Thompson explores what needs to happen to make our streets and spaces safer for the most vulnerable.
A recent YouGov survey found that to protect themselves almost a third of the women consulted avoided being alone when out, with 28% steering clear of certain areas. More than half of the women regularly avoid being out at certain times to reduce the risk of harassment or sexual assault.
Sophie Thompson, Director, LDA Design
When Sarah Everard tragically didn’t make it home from visiting a friend, multiple protests followed and society joined in a big conversation about women’s safety in the public realm. Many of us expected this to be a pivotal moment.
One year later, in March 2022, a YouGov poll for the BBC showed that many women continue to feel unsafe going about day-to-day activities. Two thirds said they don’t feel safe walking home at night, at least sometimes. Of the 20% who never walk home at night, many will be staying in for safety reasons. To protect themselves, the survey found almost a third of the women consulted avoided being alone when out, with 28% steering clear of certain areas. More than half of the women regularly avoid being out at certain times to reduce the risk of harassment or sexual assault.
Maybe the most surprising thing is that these figures aren’t even higher. Elsewhere in Europe, the situation is not taken as given. Women’s fear is recognised as a societal problem that requires action. So, as designers working in the UK, what can we do to effect change?
We need to start by being more alert to impacts from the current gender imbalance in UK urban planning, engineering and design, where men hold most of the senior positions. Many of the design moves that can make a place feel safer, for instance by generating higher footfall, concern traffic engineering – wider pavements, slowing traffic, bringing roads to grade and eliminating underpasses, and integrating more cycling.
Although that gender imbalance seems to be slowly changing, for now it continues to impact on both the quality of guidance for designers and, crucially, the way it is interpreted. ‘Secured by Design’ is a police initiative to improve security in places and buildings. Implementation of its standards is often too dependent on the single-focused approach of Designing Out Crime Officers, whereas good design requires nuance and a balance to be struck. For example, ‘Secured by Design – Homes 2019’ states that development is not to be compromised by excessive permeability caused by having too many routes. This is to prevent burglars making easy getaways but for women, having a choice of routes at night can make the difference between a place feeling safe or not.
Standards have been further compounded by advice received from counter terrorism and security professionals, for example relating to hostile vehicle mitigation measures. Seating is often designed out because of concerns about lingering, even though ‘eyes on the street’ make any public space feel safer. Planting is often heavily restricted in case it impedes natural surveillance or camera sightlines when CCTV is being used to tackle anti-social behaviour.
An overhaul of guidance is required to support professionals in the built environment, one that takes a more holistic and tailored view. More support is needed for good design that deploys cross-discipline common sense, involving landscape architects early in the decision-making process for projects large and small.
When Camden Council resolved to tackle anti-social behaviour issues at Whitfield Gardens, on Tottenham Court Road in central London, poor lighting and overgrown shrubs made the place feel like a no-go area after dark. LDA Design had to reconcile polarised public views, with café customers wanting extensive, open spaces and the Friends of Fitzrovia group wanting all planting retained in-situ. The solution lay in good lighting throughout, seats where people would want to sit, a new choice of routes and planting at the right height and density, opening up the space.
In larger and wilder spaces, the trick is concentrating lighting on the key routes to condense activity along them, which protects nature as well as people. This is how Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park was designed and a similar principle is now being adopted with Union Terrace Gardens in central Aberdeen, a two-and-a-half-acre park which had a reputation for being unsafe. When the park re-opens later this year after extensive restoration and redesign, its key routes will be quite bright in contrast to lower levels.
North American journalist and urbanist, Jane Jacobs, observed that while violent crime can happen in a well-lit but empty subway station, it will almost never happen in a darkened theatre which is full. In Newcastle city centre, one approach being taken by LDA Design in redesigning public realm is to provide reasons to dwell. A typical city centre pedestrian cut-through, Saville Row, will be animated with playful features including swivel birdcage seats, distinctive planting and a giant botanical mural.
One of the major barriers to improving women’s safety is the widespread failure of urban policymaking and planning committees to properly engage with women and girls and involve them at all stages of the discussion, including early-stage co-production.
One of the major barriers to improving women’s safety is the widespread failure of urban policymaking and planning committees to properly engage with women and girls and involve them at all stages of the discussion, including early-stage co-production.
Gender-tailored spatial analysis can help resolve both macro and micro issues. We know that spaces and facilities for sport and exercise, for example, are still largely designed with boys in mind. Make Space for Girls, which campaigns for better public spaces for teenage girls, highlights that some local authorities spend more on facilities for dog waste than for teenage girls. They are encouraging designers to advocate and support creative new ideas and approaches to park space, informed by conversations with local girls and young women. Girls feel safer the more women and other girls they see using spaces. Curation of girl-only activities such as sports, guided walks or rollerblading need to be properly considered.
At Aberfeldy Village in Poplar, East London, where the remaking of two large estates is planned, LDA Design is working with ZCD Architects to find the best ways to listen to teenage girls and understand the nature of the places they want for exercise, relaxing and socialising. Those spaces will often look and feel distinctively different from spaces that boys enjoy, with more opportunities to gather informally and to exercise with some degree of privacy.
For all the societal complexity that underpins the issues of safety for women in the built environment, there is so much more that we can be doing right now. If we drag our feet, the consequences can be deadly.
Sophie Thompson leads public realm at LDA Design.
This article first featured in the Landscape Institute’s Journal 2022 Winter edition.
Lead image: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – Robin Forster / LDA Design
Whitfield Gardens at night courtesy of Michael Grubb Studio. All other images by LDA Design.
